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List: Some of the biggest bank heists in history

By The Associated Press

Posted:
05/10/2013 02:52:41 AM EDT

Criminals working in cells around the world stole $45 million in December and February by hacking into a database of prepaid debit cards and making withdrawals from ATMs, federal prosecutors said Thursday, becoming one of the biggest bank thefts in history. Some other notable heists in recent years:

— 2006, London: Thieves take the equivalent of $92 million from a cash depot.

— 2005, Fortaleza, Brazil—Thieves take $70 million from Central Bank over an August weekend.

— 2004, Belfast, Northern Ireland: The Irish Republican Army holds families of bank employees hostage and steals $50 million in the biggest cash robbery in history.

— 2003, Iraq: $900 million in U.S. bills and as much as $100 million worth of euros is taken from Iraq Central Bank in thefts blamed on members of Saddam Hussein's family.

— 1992, Toulon, France: Robbers strap a bank security guard with dynamite and lead him to the Bank of France, where safes are emptied of $30 million. Twenty suspects are arrested two months later.

— 1982, New York City: Two men break into the Sentry Armored Car Courier Co. office and rob it of $11 million in the largest cash robbery in U.S. history.

— 1978, New York City: $5.8 million in cash is stolen from a Lufthansa Airlines vault at Kennedy Airport in a heist masterminded by Jimmy Burke, the inspiration for Robert De Niro's character in "Goodfellas."

— 1976, Beirut: Robbers take $20 million to $50 million from safe deposit boxes at the British Bank of the Middle East.